The Hartford Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 2016-2017 Masterworks season with a program of music with global flair! Rimsky-Korsakov’sCapriccio espagnolis one of the most famous orchestra showpieces, a vividly brilliant composition based on Spanish folk melodies. Inspired by the collection of Middle Eastern and Indian tales “The Thousand and One Nights,” Rimsky Korsakov’sScheherazadebrings to vibrant life the story of the young wife of a Sultan who tells tales to her husband to forestall his plan to kill her. Rodrigo’s extraordinarily beautifulConcierto de Aranjuezfor Guitar and Orchestra is unquestionably his best known work, and established his reputation as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the 20th century.

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is a theater reviewer in New York and Connecticut. She is former Second Vice President of the Drama Desk and a voting member of the Drama Desk and of The Outer Critics Circle, for which she serves as Event Manager for the annual awards dinner.

She is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Connecticut Critics Circle and is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Founder of its Connecticut Chapter.

A playwright, Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of A Christmas Carol which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.”

Yarger trained for three years in the BroadwayLeague’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadwayrun.

She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'NeillTheater Center in Waterford, CT.

Formerly she was a theater reviewer for the CT Manchester Journal-Inquirer and was Connecticut theater editor

for CurtainUp.com . She was a Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web. Yarger is a book reviewer and writer for Publishers Weekly and freelances for other sites. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

She served as a judge for the SDX Awards presentedby the Society of Professional Journalists. She also served as a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle awards committee.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts,the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.